1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of broadcast programming, such as radio and video broadcasts, transmitted over the Internet, for example.
2. Background Information
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely sophisticated devices, and computer systems may be found in many different settings. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware (e.g., semiconductors, circuit boards, etc.) and software (e.g., computer programs). As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer hardware higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful that just a few years ago.
Computer systems typically include operating system software that control the basic function of the computer, and one or more software applications that run under the control of the operating system to perform desired tasks. For example, a typical IBM Personal Computer may run the OS/2 operating system, and under the control of the OS/2 operating system, a user may execute an application program, such as a word processor. As the capabilities of computer systems have increased, the software applications designed for high performance computer systems have become extremely powerful.
Other changes in technology have also profoundly affected how we use computers. For example, the widespread proliferation of computers prompted the development of computer networks that allow computers to communicate with each other. With the introduction of the personal computer (PC), computing became accessible to large numbers of people. Networks for personal computers were developed to allow individual users to communicate with each other. In this manner, a large number of people within a company could communicate at the same time with a software application running on one computer system.
One significant computer network that has recently become very popular is the Internet. The Internet grew out of the modern proliferation of computers and networks, and has evolved into a sophisticated worldwide network of computer systems linked together by web pages that collectively make up the “world-wide web”, or WWW. A user at an individual PC (i.e., workstation) that wishes to access the WWW typically does so using a software application known as a web browser. A web browser makes a connection via the WWW to other computers known as web servers, and receives information from the web servers that is displayed on the user's workstation. Information displayed to the user is typically organized into pages that are constructed using a specialized language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
Besides images and text, other media are becoming available for downloading from and/or listening to/viewing on the Internet, such as music, video, and even live and recorded, rebroadcast, television and radio programs. Video as used here is meant to cover and include any and all computer generated visual image/display element sequences, that is, besides what is traditionally thought of as video, here the term should be read to include computer generated animation, algorithmically sequenced display elements, such as with Shockwave™ type files, applets, and the like.
However, as radio and video broadcasts become rebroadcast over the Internet, their length becomes a critical limiting factor. People will wish to hear a favorite program using their desktop computer or other Internet accessing device, but may only have time to hear, or would simply prefer to only hear, an abbreviated version.
Disadvantageously, currently rebroadcasting uses the same format as live shows, and most are not intended to be shortened when they are produced. When they are shortened, it is generally at the end. That is, abbreviated broadcasts are normally achieved by cutting off the end of the program.
In a news cast, for example, more important stories are put at the front and less important at the end, in case the listener/viewer changes the station. The hope is that the listener will stay as long as possible. In this case, the assumption is that if they lose the listener, they will have gotten in their early commercials. However, this is not optimal because a broadcaster also may want to put some relatively important things at the end to keep listeners/viewers tuned in through the whole program.
Professional broadcasters know how to “squeeze” a news program depending on circumstances. If they only have four minutes instead of five, because a live interview runs long, for example, they may drop out a less important story in the middle.
However, people want to determine on their own when they watch/listen to things, and what they watch/listen to, over the Internet. Also, more and more, Internet-access, telecommunication, information and entertainment are being integrated into one device. For live broadcast media, such as radio and television, so-called channel-surfing has become a prevalent activity, and on the Internet, so-called web-surfing is prevalent. In either case, if a listener/viewer gets bored with what they are tuned in to, they search for more interesting and/or informative material. Programming guides, advertising and Internet search engines, for example, aid a user in finding material of interest. However, a viewer of a news program, for example, may grow impatient waiting for the one story of interest to come on. The viewer may not have the time or patience to wait for the material of interest to appear, and this can be frustrating.
If a person is watching a recorded program on video tape, they can use fast-forward to get to material they wish to view. However, they still have to go serially through the tape to get to the desired material. On the other hand, if using a compact disc (CD) on a CD player, or a digital video disk (DVD) on a DVD player, which are essentially a random access memory devices, the user can go to an index, select material of interest, and conveniently jump directly to the desired material, for example. A user may also be able to program the CD/DVD device to play the indexed material of interest and skip the other material.
Internet search engines give a user the ability to filter through the bountiful stored information accessible on the Internet to find only particular subject matter that the user is interested in because much of the information stored and accessible over the Internet is essentially accessible like a CD/DVD. That is, the Internet is in a way like a giant random access memory. The exceptions of course are things like live web-cams, cameras that allow a remote Internet user to view a scene essentially in real-time, where it cannot be predicted exactly what may come in to view, and live or real-time broadcast material which has not been preprogrammed or prerecorded. However, broadcast materials which have been prerecorded and stored digitally have the potential for convenient random access through indexing, programming selections, and the like.
It is apparent that it would be advantageous to be able to apply random access capabilities to broadcast materials accessible over the Internet. Therefore, to overcome the problems and limitations in the prior art, it would be advantageous to provide a broadcast that can be accessed in a way that fits the time and needs of the listener.